Hosea 1:1-2:5

1The word of the LORD that came to Hosea son of Beeri during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and during the reign of Jeroboam son of Jehoash Hebrew Joash, a variant of Jehoash king of Israel:

Hosea’s Wife and Children 2When the LORD began to speak through Hosea, the LORD said to him, “Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the LORD .”

3So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. 4Then the LORD said to Hosea, “Call him Jezreel, because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel.

5In that day I will break Israel’s bow in the Valley of Jezreel.” 6Gomer conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. Then the LORD said to Hosea, “Call her Lo-Ruhamah (which means “not loved”), for I will no longer show love to Israel, that I should at all forgive them.

7Yet I will show love to Judah; and I will save them—not by bow, sword or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but I, the LORD their God, will save them.” 8After she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, Gomer had another son.

9Then the LORD said, “Call him Lo-Ammi (which means “not my people”), for you are not my people, and I am not your God. Or your I am 10“Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘children of the living God.’ 11The people of Judah and the people of Israel will come together; they will appoint one leader and will come up out of the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel. In Hebrew texts 1:10,11 is numbered 2:1,2.

1In Hebrew texts 2:1-23 is numbered 2:3-25. “Say of your brothers, ‘My people,’ and of your sisters, ‘My loved one.’

Israel Punished and Restored 2“Rebuke your mother, rebuke her, for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband. Let her remove the adulterous look from her face and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts.

3Otherwise I will strip her naked and make her as bare as on the day she was born; I will make her like a desert, turn her into a parched land, and slay her with thirst.

4I will not show my love to her children, because they are the children of adultery.

5Their mother has been unfaithful and has conceived them in disgrace. She said, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me my food and my water, my wool and my linen, my olive oil and my drink.’